Three late joker goals saved Borussia Dortmund from an almost traditional early setback in the Bundesliga and brought the runners-up to the top of the table. Substitutes Jamie Bynoe Gittens (77th), Youssoufa Moukoko (84th) and Marius Wolf (88th) turned the away game at SC Freiburg into a 3-1 (0-1)- Victory for BVB.
Coach Edin Terzic celebrated the ninth win in a row – no BVB coach has ever managed that before. In addition, the guests temporarily moved to the top of the table with the optimal haul of six points from the first two league games.
“Freiburg demanded everything from us, and you have to be honest: they were simply better up to 1-1,” said BVB central defender Nico Schlotterbeck after returning to his old place of work at DAZN. “It’s extremely bitter, we invested a lot in the first half,” said Freiburg international Matthias Ginter.
18-year-old Bynoe-Gittens benefited from a blunder from SC goalkeeper Mark Flekken. Michael Gregoritsch (35th) had previously given Freiburg, who had been strong for a long time, the lead in front of 34,700 spectators. Anthony Modeste, who was only signed at the beginning of the week, was in the starting XI for the guests.
In addition to Modeste, BVB coach Edin Terzic also entrusted Thorgan Hazard with a place in the starting eleven, the Belgian played offensively for the injured national player Karim Adeyemi. Freiburg coach Christian Streich fielded the same starting eleven that won 4-0 at FC Augsburg last weekend.
Terzic was hoping for “real impulses” from Modeste against SC. The newcomer from 1. FC Köln, who is to replace striker Sébastien Haller, who has been absent for months due to a testicular tumor, missed his first chance in the BVB jersey in the 22nd minute. This was preceded by a nice one-two with Marco Reus.
So the connection to his new teammates was there – but Freiburg didn’t get into too much trouble at first. The Breisgauer started very committed themselves and disturbed the attacking efforts of the guests with great willingness to run and aggressiveness. Also, they were looking for the way forward themselves, leading to early chances.
Gregor Kobel was still on the spot when the very agile Vincenzo Grifo took a direct free kick (34′), but the BVB goalkeeper was powerless to concede a minute later. Gregoritsch, who again had the advantage over Nils Petersen, skilfully headed the ball against the direction of travel after preparatory work by Matthias Ginter. Rio world champion Mats Hummels came too late against the scorer.
After the 0: 1, the Dortmund defense around Hummels and Nico Schlotterbeck, who had switched from Freiburg to BVB before the season, came under even more pressure. The somewhat overwhelmed Thomas Meunier, who had previously seen a yellow card for a tactical foul, almost scored an own goal to make it 2-0 (43rd).
